My friends, who know my views on him, must be surprised at the above statement. Some of them, who have stood shoulder to shoulder with me intrepidly on numerous Face Book battles, liking each other’s comments and supporting each other while unbelievably fanatic near psychopaths spewed their venom online, may feel let down.
Here is the reason why I fervently hope and want Modi to
succeed. (Not that what I say or believe matter a damn in the larger scheme of
things, but I like to write about my feelings and this is an attempt at sharply
defining what I feel)
India, and 1.2 billion people deserve a break.
We deserve a break from corruption, a divided and hence
paralyzed government, a powerless prime minister and a totally incompetent,
removed from reality and arrogant mother-son combination, which seems to be the
only rallying point for a once great party.
But have I changed colours and started loving the man? No.
Never. Not even if the country turns around hundred and eighty degrees under
his stewardship.
What has shocked me in the last one year and amazed me in
the last two months is the way a vast majority of middle class Indians have
completely blocked their minds out from Modi’s history. He did not earn his
wings as a messiah of development. He earned it as a hard line Hindu fanatic who
was part of the core group which engineered rath
yaatras and destruction of mosques. He was also (to give him the benefit of
doubt) the chief minister who let mobs run riot while the minorities in his
state were butchered.
He established the foundation of his popularity first as a
hard line Hindu, an extreme right winger. Once that was established only he
moved on to the next phase- that of establishing himself as a development wiz.
There is no doubt that he is a superb administrator,
extremely hardworking, personally corruption free, highly efficient and very
astute (even without having to compare with the bungling idiots on the other
side). As important is the fact that he is an amazing orator who can eat the
entire opposition for breakfast. To top it all, he has the smartness, no,
brilliance to create a powerful brand.
So I have been torn inside- should I admire this man who has
so many admirable qualities and blank out his past in my mind as so many of my
friends have done? Should I also think that what he did was for the larger good
and forgive the glaring blots? For there is no doubt again that he will be a
far more effective Prime Minister and that there is a very high probability
that he will pull the country out of the mess that we are in.
But if I do that, if I join the milling hysterical crowd
that is singing paeans to him and glorifying him and deifying him, what example
would I be setting for my children? That it is OK to perpetrate horrible and
shameful deeds to some people as long as you achieve some good for most other
people in the end? That means always justify the end? That someone with such a
huge questionable past who stood for everything that is against the plural
nature of our constitution can become the Prime Minister of India? That we
should all remember that ‘Jo Jeeta, Wohi
Sikandar’?
As I watch friend after friend and relative after relative
succumb to the frenzy, I feel sad and shocked. Sad that there are so many who
are willing to forget those unfortunates who lost their lives and their
families to the hard line nature of Hindutva which Modi represents, just
because they feel that their own future is now brighter. (And I don’t doubt an iota
that it is brighter). I feel so sad that the media which had staunchly tried
for many years to point out the dangers of Modi has suddenly done a volte-face
in the last three months and hope that this had nothing to do with the alleged Rs.5000
crore communication budget of Brand Modi. How many times have I fervently
wished that Modi was not a Hardline Hindu fanatic or at least that the pogrom
of 2002 had never happened so that I can also join the crowd.
I am shocked at statements such as ‘See, how inclusive and
balanced, his speech is? He is no hardliner.’ Or ‘He has not once mentioned
Hindutva or Ayodhya. He is so balanced’. Can’t people see that he is a
brilliant strategist and a consummate actor? He knows that there is no need to
do the hard line act anymore- those hard line voters were won over when he / his ilk did
Ayodhya and later the riots. He knows that now he should just focus on getting
the apathetic, middle liners.
At the same time, I am also hopeful that this regime will, once
and for all, stop- through legal means- the hardliners of some minority
communities that dish out fatwas and believe they are a law unto themselves.
The hardliners who used to get away scot-free because of vote bank politics. I
hope the regime can bring about one Indian law, applicable to all. I am
incredibly hopeful by the shauchalaya
over devalaya decision that he has
intrepidly taken, backing development over hard line policies.
My humble request to all at this juncture is only this. Even
while we all pray that Modi succeeds for our own good, let us not forget the
path that he tread was dangerous and scary. It is even more worrying because he
is efficient, effective, charismatic and astute and can sway the masses. Let
us, as a people promise to ourselves that we will not let him return to his
roots if the vagaries of global economy makes his development agenda less
effective than it deserves to be- even while hoping that he has genuinely
learned and grown; let us promise ourselves to rise up and fearlessly quell
rabid behaviour if it rears its ugly head again; because the easiest thing to
do if the development agenda does not work would be to polarise the nation
again to stay on in power.
Narendra Modi is here to stay; maybe for the next 15 years
as a Prime Minister of this country. I hope fervently that he succeeds in his
development agenda.
